The disclosure relates generally to a system and method for generating power and more particularly, to a system and method for generating electric power, using a turboexpander coupled to a thermal pump.
In a typical power generation application, a power plant using a Rankine system utilizes a pump to feed a pressurized liquid from a condenser to a boiler or a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger is used to vaporize the liquid to a gas. Further, a turboexpander is coupled to the heat exchanger to receive the gas and expand the gas for driving a generator to generate electric power. The pump used to feed the pressurized liquid to the heat exchanger, generally consumes a significant portion of the electric power generated from the generator. This significantly reduces the overall efficiency of the power plant.
Thus, there is a need for an improved system and method for increasing the efficiency of the power plant.